Fighting Hunger One Can at a Time

BYU Rotary Club and the YSA 82nd ward teamed up to fight hunger by collecting cans in the Provo Community in behalf of the Utah Valley Food Bank.

Carson Ralphs, future Rotary Club president helped recruit the YSA 82nd ward to help.  With the extra help of the YSA ward the Rotary Club was successful in collecting enough food to feed over 20 families in Utah County.

Ralphs who will become president in April has enjoyed being apart of the Rotary Club and serving the Provo community.

"The mission of BYU Rotary Club is to serve the local community, I hope in the future that our club can serve those locally and internationally," Ralphs said.

Students who participated in the event traveled to homes surrounding BYU and knocked on countless doors and introducing themselves, the club and the purpose of collecting cans.

Some homes made interesting contributions according to students who participated.  One couple donated bottles of Mountain Dew and a box of cereal to the event.

Cynthia Jijon, Rotary Club Marketing Supervisor, had a great time meeting new people and serving the community.

"Going door to door brought back great memories from my mission," Jijon said. "I was able to talk with others who I was with collecting cans about their missions and share experiences from mine."

After the event, bishop of the YSA 82nd ward bought KFC to celebrate the success of the food they raised for Utah Valley Food Bank.

"It was a wonderful experience and I've enjoyed today and being a member of the Rotary Club," Jijon said.

Mormon Mommy Bloggers

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• Having a baby changes life dramatically. From dirty diapers, waking up at 3 a.m, getting spit up all over you and having no time to take a shower many moms and dads have to say goodbye to their former carefree baby life.  
• In the Mormon culture and in recent years many Mormon mother's have resorted to blogging as a stress reliever or way to communicate with other mother's.
• Olivia Gunnell a new mother enjoys sharing her stories of being a mom.
• "I love motherhood and want other women to know the joys of it and have a desire to experience it themselves," Gunnell said. "There are too many women choosing not to have families today and I don't think they realize the happiness they are missing out on."
• Gunnell hopes that her stories will inspire other women and give them hope to have kids someday.
• "I want women to not be so scared about the experience or the changes motherhood brings because since I've become a mother I don't know if I've ever been happier (besides meeting and marrying my husband)," Gunnell said. "It's a different kind of happiness that is impossible to fully understand until you're experiencing it yourself."
• Blogging in recent months has helped Gunnell to see her potential as a mother and has inspired her to be her best self.
• "Blogging has helped me have a perspective on motherhood," Gunnell said. "It has helped me separate the good from the bad and realize there is much more good. It helps me to not take any time with my daughter for granted. Reading other mommy blogs helps me feel like I'm not alone in this crazy journey."
• Hillary Dobbins who recently had her first baby in August loves being a mom. She has recently become a blogger and posts weekly to her blog.
• Dobbins finds blogging to be a stress reliever and looks at it as her new hobby.
• "I feel that blogging is a personal outlet and I believe that mom's need to make time for themselves," Dobbins said.
• Finding time to blog can be difficult between her daily activities. When Dobbins finds the time to blog she usually spends a couple minutes to an hour typing what inspires her. She recommends that all moms find something personal they like doing to prevent losing their personal identity.
• "Find one thing that you like," Dobbins said. "It makes a big difference in your ability to care for your baby since you still feel like you have your own identity."

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Thanksgiving Holiday Threatened by Shopping

It's Thanksgiving time which means being with loved ones enjoying a bountiful feast.  It's a day of relaxing and enjoying time to reminiscence with family and friends.  The fun is quickly cut short when a cell phone rings dreadfully reminding you that you have to be in at work right away.  

Employees across the country may face the fate of having to go into work on Thanksgiving, especially employees working in retail or in restaurants.  

According to an article on USA Today it expects shoppers to spend 3.9% more this year. The article also mentions how some stores like K-Mart plan to open at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving day.   

"Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has traditionally represented the start of the holiday shopping period. Over the past few years, a kind of arms race has developed among retailers, and stores have opened their doors earlier and earlier each Friday," (USA Today). 

Gene Harris a Maintenance Supervisor at King Henry Apartments in Provo dislikes the idea of stores forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving.

"Black Friday is always crazy where people are grabbing items left and right,"  Harris said. "One year I went to Home Depot and wanted to get out of there right away because I couldn't stand how people were acting. Thanksgiving is a time to be with friends and family and not out in the Black Friday crowds."  

King Henry Office Assistant, Melissa Hill who has been working at the apartment complex for one in a half years has been forced in the past to work on Thanksgiving."

"This year and last year I was able to stay home and I'm looking forward to spending time with my family," Hill said.  

This year King Henry wanted to give it's employees time by closing early on Wednesday and closed on Thanksgiving.  

Music Video

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Discussion on Mobile News

What can news organizations do to keep up with mobile demand and prevent massive problems that happened when people started going online to read news stories rather than looking at papers? Also come up with a plan on how your newspaper can do a better job making your content available to mobile devices.

1.  The first thing that came to my mind about keeping up with mobile demand is to hire people who specialize in phone apps.  Find ways to make the app accessible to people and user friendly.  Also, make sure that the app is free to download or inexpensive.

2.  The second thing I would do as a news organization is to advertise their app via the Internet and printed newspapers.  That way people know about it.  

3.  Once the app is published make sure that someone is constantly adding news stories.   From what I have seen news organizations that publish on a regular basis are read more than papers that don't.

4.  News organizations need to put a heavy emphasis on phone apps rather than desktops.  News organizations that ignore this will have the same fate as news papers that refused to go online right away.

5.  To help make content available to mobile devices I would create an app that is compatible with Apple, Android and Windows phones.  That way no one is limited on what they can receive based on what type of phone they have.

6.  I would also make buttons on phone apps easier to read and click on.  So many times I have been lead to the wrong thing by clicking on the wrong button because I couldn't see it.